Updates On Syria: Date of Peace Conference Pushed Back, Turkey Ramps Up Border Control, Assad's Advisor Is Hopeful About A Political Settlement

Meanwhile, the international effort to get both sides of the conflict
to the negotiating table to find a political solution to the crisis hit
yet another stumbling block Tuesday, as diplomats failed to agree on a date for a long-anticipated peace summit in Geneva.

The
world powers strongly disagreed over what diplomatic steps to take to
resolve the fighting and what any future Syrian leadership beyond
President Assad's government should look like.

Turkey, which has adhered to an "open border" policy for the Syrian opposition forces since the eruption of the civil war in Syria, has finally started to take some visible measures along its border after accusations of being the “country that allows passage to al-Qaeda." One of those measures is the wall being erected at Nusaybin. This barrier, already labeled “the wall of shame," is actually targeting not al-Qaeda, but the Kurds who are fighting Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham. Another measure of note has been the increasing control of border crossings by the Turkish army.

There’s a chance to end the Syrian crisis in two weeks if there’s
political will on all sides, according to Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban,
political and media advisor to the Syrian president.

“If the various parties have the political will to put an end
to the Syrian suffering, to the Syrian crisis, they can do it
within weeks. If they can only stop financing the arming [of
Syrian rebels] and the smuggling of terrorists across the border
from Turkey, 50 percent of the Syrian crisis would be over in two
weeks’ time,” Dr. Shaaban said in an exclusive interview to
RT.

She said that the Syrian government was ready to take part in
Geneva-2 peace talks without any preconditions. President Bashar
Assad’s government is ready to sit down for peace talks with
“people who represent the political opposition” of the
Syrian population, but not the armed rebel groups, Dr. Shaaban
said.